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Cryogenic treatment of gears?

jeepguy365

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Oct 23, 2011
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Who have you used? I looked into 66CJDean after a friend suggested him but the website is no longer working.
 
Honestly, I think you would be better off with a good set of gears and solid install from someone that is good or yourself if you are experienced or research how to and have good equipment.

A good cryo and micropolish would definitely make the gears stronger and put off less heat, though, if you want to spend some coin. The best quality gears won't fix a poor setup, though. I haven't made any purchases or know them personally, but I would get with Cryoheat out of Oceanside, California. I have seen split cross sections of some of their work at a desert race in Nevada and have followed them from afar. They look to be good guys from what I can tell.
 
"Honestly, I think you would be better off with a good set of gears and solid install from someone that is good or yourself if you are experienced or research how to and have good equipment."

Kind of what I'm thinking, gear setup or quality has not been my problem in the past. What are good gears in your mind, good is a relative term? Yukon, Richmond, US Gear or PRO series 9310 form from different vendors? I'm really just looking to get a little more life out of a low pinion D60.
 
I haven't done a ton of full size stuff other than what was provided for me to work with. Installed a lot of Yukons in high HP rigs that didn't explode, but we also set them up solely for rock bouncing with super tight backlash that would likely be unreasonable for a daily driver or possibly even a heavily used trail rig driven at moderate speeds that get the gears too hot. We were also using 14B or Dana 80's exclusively which both will be able to control pinion deflection better than a D60 could ever do which comes back to the good set up part. Sometimes, you are going to be limited to what you are working with in which case cryo and micropolish is your only chance at making a bad situation better. Some claim up to 25% greater strength after treatment.

I look at Ultra4 cars and what they are using personally. That being said my recommendation would be Gearworks, but it seems they only make gears for the Ford 9" platform or scaled up to the 10" custom applications.

I have a instinctive sense that Yukon or Nitro will be your best direction with a secondary cryo and micropolish treatment to gain strength and reduce heat which would allow you to set the gears up a little tighter than recommended possibly. Just consider that the cheapest option will likely be the cheapest for a reason and some of the higher end options may be priced a little excessively to cater to their market. At the end of the day, only you can decide your budget and how hard you push the skinny pedal, though. If you can't justify the parts due to pricing, the only other option is to tear down and inspect the gears on a schedule that will prevent catastrophic failure and allow you to address excessive wear as you see it.
 
I didn't think of Spicer, but I would say that is an option as well. I would also really focus on using a high quality install kit, whether you buy it all as one or spec your own Timken or greater quality bearings.

Also consider the smaller the ring gear tooth count is the better off the pinion will be. So if you can run 4.11 instead of 5.13 you will be better off. I assume you are stuck with the t case and trans gearing that you have, though, so the only other option would be to decrease tire size to keep the same effective gearing. You could also add power to counteract the reduction in gearing advantage, but that is bit counter productive to making the gears live longer.
 
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I met the Cryoheat guys from Oceanside, CA at the Mint 400. Took the time to answer all my questions during a busy race. Read good things about them.
 
I have set up Yukon, Nitro and US GEAR Put them in Dana 60 , 14b, toyota 9, GM 12 bolt, Dana 35, dana 20, Chrysler AAM 11.5. and a couple others im sure. Overall most of the main stream brands are going to do fine with the proper set up. That being said a good set of bearings is worth more than the ring and pinion i think. Almost all gear failures can be traced to improper spacing. This can be from improper set up, bearing wear, or case deflection. I always try to set the gears based upon what weakness the axle or carrier may have and how its going to be used. The cryo treatment has value but it really is only going to be for that small percentage of people that really put a beating on gears beyond their design limits. Like Ultra 4 or hotshot carriers.. Plenty of diesels out there with 300k on the ticker and never had a rear end change.
 
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Break in is also another step that I am pretty sure most don't take into account. You need to allow the gears to mesh and wear in with low load and go through a few heat cycles without getting too hot. Just another thing most don't do, like bedding new brake pads or changing break in oil to get the metal out before it does damage.
 

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